5 things we learned in Week 12 of College Football

There were upsets and mayhem as usual on Saturday and here’s what we learned from College Football’s Week 12. 

It’s hard to believe but after college football’s Week 12, we have exactly one week left of the regular season.

Then, it’s onto championship week and before we know it, bowl games, the College Football Playoff, and the offseason.

As far as the College Football Playoff picture, that got much clearer on Saturday as Oregon looked awful in a road loss to Utah and Ohio State drubbed Michigan State.

Cincinnati also finally got the message about sending a message and dominated an upset-minded SMU team 48-14. And it’s with the Bearcats that we start with what we learned in college football Week 12 as the Group of Five is now poised for its first-ever playoff team.

Is Cincinnati about to break down the playoff door?

When the initial College Football Playoff rankings were released, it was clear that Cincinnati was going to need chaos and the Bearcats have gotten it.

The Big Ten is only going to have one playoff team and that’s assuming the Big Ten East winner — Ohio State or Michigan — wins the Big Ten title game, while the Pac-12 and the ACC are out. The Big 12 actually has hope now which didn’t seem possible when Oklahoma lost last week but there has been so much chaos that the Sooners and Oklahoma State are still on life support.

The real winner on Saturday though was Cincinnati. And even if the committee puts Michigan in front of the Bearcats this week (I don’t expect but you never know) it won’t matter. As long as Cincinnati wins out, it should make the College Football Playoff.

Keyword being should.

I’d be worried about Oklahoma State/Oklahoma right now if I was a fan of the Bearcats. Each team has just one loss and would a one-loss Big 12 champ really get passed over for unbeaten Cincinnati?

Thankfully the Bearcats have the win at Notre Dame which gets better looking all the time, because, without that, my bet is the Big 12 winner, with one loss, would get the nod.